BLACK MALE CHARACTERS’ VIOLENCE ON BLACK FEMALE CHARACTERS IN THE THIRD LIFE OF GRANGE COPELAND

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MINISTRY OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

UNIVERSITY OF ORAN

FACULTY OF LETTERS, LANGUAGES AND ARTS DEPARTMENT OF ANGLO-SAXON LANGUAGES

SECTION OF ENGLISH

BLACK MALE CHARACTERS’ VIOLENCE ON BLACK

FEMALE CHARACTERS

IN THE THIRD LIFE OF GRANGE COPELAND

Thesis submitted to the Department of Anglo-Saxon Languages in candidacy for the degree of magister in literature/civilisation

Presented by:

HEDROUGSouad Sarah

-Supervisor: Dr Benali-Mohamed Rachid University of Oran

Board of examiners:

-Chairwoman: Dr Belkhenchir Khadoudja University of Oran

-Examiner: Pr Bahous Abbes University of Mostaganem -Examiner: Dr Belmekki Belkacem University of Oran

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DECLARATION

I, hereby, declare that this work has not already been accepted in substance for any degree, and is not concurrently being submitted in candidature for any other degree. Hedroug Souad Sarah

The researching, preparation and presentation of the thesis have been undertaken entirely by the author.

Hedroug Souad Sarah

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DEDICATION

This work is dedicated first to my father‟s soul (May He Rest in Peace).

I dedicate this work to my husband „Youcef‟ for his comprehensiveness, for his generous help and for his deep support and encouragement.

I also dedicate it to my mother who has been always a model for patience and resolution, to my sons „Mehdi‟ and „Mohamed Seif El Islam‟ for whom I started and completed this work, to my uncle Dr Abdellilah Abdelkader and to all my family relatives, and friends.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First and above all, my deep gratitude goes to my supervisor Dr Benali Mohamed Rachid who provided advice and guidance, and who largely contributed to the elaboration and completion of this work.

Secondly, I am much indebted to Dr Lakhdar Barka Sidi Mhohamed who proved to be a fastidious teacher and without whom this work would have never been realised.

Finally, I am owed to every person who has contributed -in a way or another- to the production of this thesis. A special and sincere indebtedness goes to Dr Bouhend Mohamed Rédha (May He Rest in Peace) for his generous help.

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THE ABSTRACT

The present work tries to probe in one of the African American female writings as being –besides their aesthetic forms- the most genuine types of literature. This association with reality displays itself while striving to voice and articulate the victimisation of the black woman (in particular) in a kind of fiction loaded with discourse.

This piece of research deals with the inter-gender relationships in the Third Life of Grange Copeland (a novel written by the African American writer Alice Walker).The aim of this work is to discus –not to say demonstrate- the causes of black male characters‟ violence on black female characters. To approach such a topic, the main question it raises is; what causes and enhances home violence, or wife abuse, among black families in this novel?

It therefore introduces a set of tentative answers related to different, yet interrelated, disciplines like the sociological, the historical, the psychological and the literary that provide me with a considerable help by which I attempt to build up my hypothesis. I then try to take the Frustration-Aggression hypothesis, sexism and gender role polarisations as supporting backgrounds. Hence, to structure my work, I am going to divide it into three chapters: one theoretical and others analytical.

The first chapter probes in the theme of violence, and particularly domestic violence, as a general phenomenon. It therefore deals with its definition, its forms and issues, and its causes. Thus, it relates all of frustration, racism, sexism, patriarchy, and submission as key words and conceptions applied to the whole work.

The second chapter handles black male characters‟ violence on their women because of frustration applying by that the frustration and aggression relationship. This chapter therefore tackles their subjection to frustration and its relation with their being violent. The last chapter deals with violence as a gender issue (patriarchal terrorism). Likewise, it tackles how gender role orientation (because of socialisation) for both black male and female characters affects wife abuse (or male violence).

Proceeding with such a methodology, I achieved certain hypothetical findings. Black male characters‟ feelings of frustration and oppression along with their masculine orientation by society result in generating wife abuse in this novel, and black female characters‟ submission –as their socialised gender role- enhances their men‟s violence on them.

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INTRODUCTION

Art of discourse establishes itself through various forms and manifestations, and

literature seems to be its prevailing form. Sifting or supporting theses, defending or attacking persons are the main interesting topics dealt with in any piece of literature.

Literature as distinct from other discursive activities needs to adopt a specific code, an artistic and an artful use of language of its own, which is inevitably purposeful. A beautiful language loaded with discourse and ideologemes¹, this is what characterises literature. Therefore, the writer‟s meaning is not for him alone to determine. This is, in fact, what makes any literary work subject to appropriation by others –even by those who seem not to share its author‟s precise standpoint (and who, however, shares the same pragmatics)². Readers of literature –as discourse- would therefore approach the diversity of voices established within the text to enter unfinished and a continuous conversation, which is exposed to construction, re-construction and deconstruction. That is why Foucault does not see the author as so interesting. For him, and for others, what always really speaks is language itself.

Any literary work is hence dependent on its specific language and its specific combination of different linguistic materials. In its very questions, this distinct language implies answers rather than expecting ones.

The question of literature that runs between fiction and reality, or imagination and sincerity seems to impose itself here, and it requires a crucial answer. Fictional texts are said to be the ones whose signs possess no referents. However, any literary work without reference is hence „false‟, or it does not merit the value of reality.

Hence, reference and the value of reality are the characteristics determined by the text‟s relations to the world.

While fictional texts can concern real objects though they are not real, according to Menoud, L (2005), reality can be in itself an object of imagination. In this sense, facts can be fiction and fiction can be facts.

It is the intention of the author that determines this difference and distinction between fiction and non-fiction. If what the writer affirms is nothing to do with what actually happens (or happened), thus, his writing is fictional.

1-Conceptual complex

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It is also the reader‟s attitude towards a piece of writing which makes it perceived as fiction or not. Likewise, the actual influence of the literary work on the reader helps in this orientation as well.

However, even though we consider a novel as real, the reader has to be cautious in treating its statements as definite assertions. This is what Menoud, L. calls pseudo-fiction and it implies a book read as fiction despite the reader‟s refusal of its fictional sense. The real point in literature is not only conceiving of characters and the events taking place in the story as being real, but it also appears in the reader‟s capacity to feel embarrassed and shocked by the view presented, i.e. it is what stirs the reader‟s reactions in the novel towards what happens in the narrative. This is the intention of the author of fiction; his task is to make the reader adopt a certain attitude towards his expressed propositions. This attitude makes the narrative seems more real.

A linguistic field is used then to accomplish such a task. Referential language is not only necessary to represent facts, exchange information and acting on reality, but also to constitute certain facts in order to make the reader react. Facts, which are not necessary „hold‟ but ever shown through the text.

Fiction therefore should be associated with reference. Otherwise, it is non-sense. Reference is not restricted however, into linguistic expressions; meanwhile, there are other relations for representations between the images established in the text and the world. A variety of techniques is considered as to contribute to its meanings. Metaphors, comparisons and other figures of speech, archaic words, new and intended words, unusual graphology, created ambiguity, intertextual references³, and the breakage of grammatical rules; all has much to do with encoding the language of literature and playing with its meaning. Creativity seems to be so attached to such writings. The understanding of this creativity within language often depends on readers who are –to some extent- familiar, or having prior knowledge, of something.

Representation seems to be in itself synonymous with the term „fiction‟. Every work that makes us imagine is fiction. If literature does not hold this function, then, it is considered as non-fiction –and this is not the case, for the core of literature‟s function is representation.

Putman (1981), on the other hand, sees representation synonymous with the term 3-it is the process by which the text refers to other texts or facts.

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„reference‟, which usually designs a relation between the word and something really exists. Literature therefore exposes an object as a represented object.

In literature, however, representation has much to do with „decoding‟ the linguistic expression in order to explore and acquire the meaning. The language of fiction hence codifies the registers of the referential discourse.

Reality merges with imagination to create the object of literature. The anecdotic meaning and the aesthetic formation together make and build up the object, or the body of knowledge. This knowledge however is not enclosed within the literary text, but it is discursive; it is exposed to discussion as far as the reader‟s authentic experiences are concerned.

Our epistemological access into fictional worlds (provided by literature) allows us to establish a psychological contact with the characters of this fiction. We know the thoughts, and the very private feelings of those characters. Our reactions therefore are similar to those we have about the real world. Fictional characters, I believe, are able (even more than real people) to make us laugh, cry, grief, fear … etc. In fiction, our psychological penetration is permitted, the fact that makes it different from the real world.

Illusion has much to do with fiction, hence, when reading literature; we get so impressed and absorbed that we can conceive and feel that the characters really exist. It is necessary here, however, to assert that visual fiction is more concerned with illusion than literature is, for with the latter, we consider more the fictional context.

This illusion in literature may therefore refer to the make-believe game. The author conducts the reader to make-believe that the narrative is real. That is how one can distinguish between the reading of fiction and non-fiction; this attitude towards the content as to be realistic or not determines the illusive and the realistic sense of any piece of literature.

Therefore, as Genette, G (1995) reasons, once the reader accepts the literary work as non-fiction, once he accepts the world imposed by literature, he has then to expect that „what comes next‟ as being more serious than any fictional consensus. Likewise, the reader will view the novel (or the literary work) as discourse which comes to mean something, and which is presented however in accordance with an aesthetic construction. This is what art does, when it represents the thoughts through images.

Consequently, one will perceive that the facts extracted from the practical life intervene in literature, and vice versa, literature can be an essential element of the practical life. If we take a novel, which is a poetic creation, it can be nothing but an artistic

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representation of characters and situations that refer –in a way or in another- to the real world. Its value, in fact, rests in its correspondence with reality.

Even the dialogues, which the writer presents as a simple conversation, are masked forms of narration that design the characters‟ portraits in order to highlight the narrative with a realistic sense. Those dialogues are hence an indirect description, or showing of, persons, things, actions and ideas.

In literature and in art in general, in order to show an object, the author has to deform its previous appearance. This deformation is achieved by the use of exaggeration which does not do harm to the object, its sensibility, visibility and even reality. This exaggeration does not change the object presented in literature, but its function is to make it difficult for the reader to guess.

According to Derrida, J (1972), a text can be so only if it is able to hide at the first sight, at the first coming, the laws of its composition and the rules of its game. In a word, it has to be imperceptible. The author intends to let the reader penetrate the text through the applied images that disturb the referential function. Otherwise, the reader does not accept such a work as valuable. Thus, the author strives to expose his lecture by achieving a total deception of the reader.

The essential goal of this fantastic signification in poetics is to relate literature to real world for this latter, though it is real, is very deep and very unclear.

The reader‟s image is always present in the author‟s conscience. He then finds it his duty to demonstrate a souvenir of an emotion, live tableaux, and words of the spirit… etc, to attract his interest and therefore retain his attention. This is how to orient the reader‟s sympathy and his emotions, which allow him to participate in the development of the theme of the work. Any piece of literature should be hence highlighted with emotions that are necessary in the judgment of its value.

Besides the pleasure of fiction, a novel proposes for his readers –whether explicitly or implicitly- a discourse on the world. In the plan of this discourse, there is a construction of the structure and the functionality of society. The author‟s single-minded interest is to provide his readers with an image as much as authentic as possible through his characters, their actions, and their fates. Through this fiction, this „veracity‟, the author gives the ideological gestures; his judgments, feelings, and his adherence or refusal of –one may say- certain social realities. The art of rhetoric assures the realistic sense of the text.

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This realistic contribution in fiction makes it seem as Maupassant called it „the realistic illusion‟ (l‟illusion réaliste). This seems to be a very appropriate and suitable label for literature as a neutral discipline, which is distinct from both fiction and reality per se. The novel joins two competencies, that of language and that of ideology. A specific linguistic competence (usually characterized by the breaking of some linguistic rules) and general ideological competence (usually represents implicitly the social universe); the fact that invokes the existence of two types of text analysis. One is purely related in accordance to the syntactical and lexical properties of the language in which the text is written. The other corresponds to the models of representation and of reasoning of the society represented and introduced by the author.

Those two competencies are, however, hardly and strongly interrelated for the lexical field of the text helps dramatize its content and enhance its internal and external references. In this sense, the system of „code‟ becomes a system of signification; it becomes a system of connotation by which the text produces its proper significations and references, which formulate the discourse‟ signifiers that circulate implicitly around the text. This creates the co-relation between the text and its referent, between history and literature, between the novel and the real life.

The text hence demonstrates an ideology that represents –not a system of real relationships that govern the real existence of the individuals, but, the imaginative system that links those individuals, and which co-relates with the real one in which they live. Therefore, literature gives history a second chance to occur; it gives it a chance to live „twice‟.

The text –as the author‟s discourse- provides a given representation in a kind of hallucination, dream, facts … The means vary but the goal seems to be specific, unique. Within the literary frame, the ideology seems both mystifying and instructive. It is this literary property, which gains the text „meaning‟, and the ability to transcend social structures at once. This mystification and this transcend impose any dispersed declaration within the text for interpretation; nothing is simple and explicitly expressed.

The ideological structure is very profound and it goes even beyond the mythical structure of the text. Contradiction exists even between the intentions expressed by the author and displayed in his characters‟ actions, and the deep significations of his work. The pleasure of reading literature is got when this profound ideology is penetrated. Even though it is not acquired –as the author intends to make it-, there will be at least a kind of reception and perception of „a knowledge‟. Moreover, along with the voice of the

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author and/or the narrator, there are other implicit voices, and ideologies, which make a discussion displays itself in the text.

A foreign formation is imposed in the ideas to disguise them –without hiding them- in order to gain them an appearance with more advantages than that of their ordinary forms. It loads these primary ideas with new ones that have to be discovered either directly or indirectly.

The words hence may take –through some techniques- different significations and meanings than their proper ones. Figures give power and vivacity to discourse; they, if well established, embellish the discourse. They give the text a pleasure and freedom too, to read. Freedom of reading rests in the fact that the figures of speech possess no restricted or confined, no imposed or controlled conceptions; but the figure does refer to unfinished and multiple possibilities of meaning. This dynamic characteristic of „figures‟ makes the text discursive for they hold a second universe of representations.

The effort of the writer does not rest in inventing in the sense of enchanting the reader by wining his absolute imagination, but, on the contrary, it rests in establishing -as much as possible- some links with reality.

Fiction is then the art that revives the text. Culture appears as a fantastic territory with imprecise limits, and literature (as a whole) as a game of mirror on culture and society. Besides structure, literature consists of ideas and involves history. Literature is therefore an exercise of freedom. As Bakhtin, M reasoned, there would be no interest if the reader were to fuse with the writer. He would add nothing new, he would see and know only what has been already seen and known by the writer; and this makes the reader turns around a closed circle. The reader‟s responsibility hence rests in his responsive mind, in creativity, in reviving the author‟s work. Thus, the voice of the author is never silenced. (It is revived through different readings). His talent is then shown in illuminating his characters and in speaking their language.

A book is left inconclusive, fully open-ended to suit life because life is as such. The author never judges, but he reports or exposes the event –not to say the fact- and lets the readers estimate its values.

In any reading experience, there is a kind of implied dialogue between the author and the reader that reflects a range of relationships from identification to complete opposition. They may either agree or differ morally, intellectually, or aesthetically. The same relationships may establish themselves between the reader and the character and /or the narrator. Any word, indeed any enunciation, opens an endless discussion.

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Since what stands behind a text (a literary work) is language system, so everything in this text can be subject to unfinished repetition and reproduction. Even though –as Bakhtin argued- each text, as an utterance, is individual, unique and unrepeatable. So, one may say that each text cannot be repeated but recreated, and thus, it is subject to an unending innovation.

The relationship of society to literature varies according to each literary creation. Therefore, the extent to which social reality is reflected in literature remains unknown –or rather controversial. The inclusion of cultural and sub-cultural norms and values, and even the interpretation of social reality by fiction writers, appear in varying degrees.

Some novelists, not only involve such social and cultural realities in their works, but they also make conscious effort to alter traditional „inhumane‟ norms. This is the reason why family researchers –for instance- use analysis of fiction to increase the historical and cross-cultural understanding of the family and its dynamics. As readers, hence, our vision towards a book as being serious is achieved only if it exposes before us some images of society.

The writer is a member of society, therefore, he influences and is influenced by it. Any writer‟s function is to pronounce questions –or facts- of social and political importance that take place in the issues of his time. He is a reliable representative of his age and society, and what he enunciates is, perhaps, more accurate than anything we receive from historians and reporters themselves. This is the reason why his realistic voice is one of the things we read fiction for.

What it means to be a Negro, what it means to be a woman, how society takes care of you or fails to do, and others; these are the fertile matters, which the writer strives to articulate. Therefore, reading literature rests on making the reader think, imagine, and make sense of his own experiences. Thereby, writers express what happens around them; they however, present it in an artistic way. This artistic, artificial, and at the same time complex way of representation makes of literature a distinct field. The active reader however has to deconstruct this complexity in order to deepen both his knowledge and his pleasure from literature.

Many critics assert that literature conveys sincerity more than any other field, and such phenomena as class, race, the attitude towards religion and towards the woman and others are far better illustrated in fiction than elsewhere. Others, however, affirm that the primary aim of literature is producing a structure of words of its own, a new and specific language, and that the focus on facts and truth is a secondary interest of literature. However, I think

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that, this specific form of language and this beauty of style are nothing but a rhetorical and a persuasive issue to demonstrate real facts and to represent the authentic world. It is necessary here, however, to argue that the authenticity of literature differs from each literary work to another according to the degree of stress on facts and reality.

Fiction writer does not reflect the facts; however, he recounts their impact. Consequently, literature becomes –one may say- a commentary about the real life. Hence, literature does not rewrite facts. In this sense, fiction „sustains the true‟ and it is then different from „fantasy‟ which does not have any basis in real life. Imagination in literature is the exaltation of reality; whereas, fantasy is the distortion of reality.

Many people assert that the elements of imagination in literary works like great exaggeration, the use of premonition and coincidence are likely to happen only in fiction and they seem to have no link with the real life. This is, in fact, a false assumption; those recurrent elements happen often enough in reality. This union of fiction and reality makes of them elements of „magical realism‟ in literature.

On the other hand, the literary writer has to safeguard a distance for prudence –not necessarily for neutrality- to permit to his readers the construction of a progressive idea and not a pressed, imposed and confined one. So, the reader has, in his turn, to avoid regarding the author‟s enunciation (ideas) as inevitable facts, even though their author seems to be a victim or a witness, and a reporter of his society‟s and epoch‟s discomfort and contradiction which are not profoundly expressed even in history books themselves. Despite the belief that labels fiction as „falsehood‟, it is argued, that fiction (and literature in general) represents life which is a social reality, and that the most genuine form of fiction (i.e. that represents much reality) is what we know as the novel. Behind the emergence of the novel, lie such literary bases like the diary, the epic, and the romance. The novel, thus, is a deep and a solid-based literary genre that comes to convey something and it does not expose a non-sense. It is therefore a means of media mixed up with a purpose of providing pleasure.

The novelist gives his readers the power to eavesdrop on his characters‟ secret lives, the fact that makes those lives –unlike ours- more visible. However, it is the reader‟s task to recognise when they tell the truth and when they lie. The truth is hence the novel‟s thematic aspect, and the lie conveys its fictional or pleasurable aspect.

In the novel, we can know people more perfectly than we can do in the real life, in this light; the novel is truer and more exact and genuine than history. The novelist exhibits, if he wishes the inner as well as the outer life of his characters (and he does so by talking

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about and through them). Consequently, he allows us to penetrate and intrude their deep sub-conscious, which, in many cases, makes us enter a world of confusion. This is, I think, why his writing is called „fiction‟.

The novelist‟s aim is to consider his society in his writing, and to strive for altering bad aspects in it. I believe that the novel (and art in general) does represent life and it does shape it too. Novels may alter people‟s ideologies, or visions, towards their own –or even other foreign- cultures. Therefore, each culture, I think, can demonstrate itself through literature.

African American literature traces its origins back to late 18th century slave narratives and the Harlem Renaissance associated with such writers as Phillis Wheatley who focused on the issue of slavery (before and during the American Civil War). Continuing today with others such as Tony Morrison, Walter Mosley, Angela Davis, Maya Angelou and Alice Walker being classified among the top writers in the United States and whose literary works dealt with black American culture, racial discrimination, equality and black nationalism (mainly during the American Civil Rights Movement).

African American writers addressed the blacks for awareness. They feel it their duty to enlighten their folks to see reality and to be well armed to face and to deal with it. Black American people had to be conscious of their status as victims in the white American society, of their new type of slavery, of their robbed rights, and above all, they should act against it to preserve their rights and retrieve their identity.

They addressed the whites to denounce their oppression, egoism, hatred and racism. They complained about the psychological and moral harm they endured because of them, and they strived to show their strength and willingness to encounter them.

They addressed the universe to prove their existence as human beings and as American citizens. No matter which colour they were, they had (and still have) voices that could sound as profoundly as any others‟, they had culture and hence, they could write literature which should be recognised and acknowledged.

Southern black women‟s literature which has been ignored, remarks itself by its defiance to American literature and intrudes itself even to what counts as history. Those women writers have succeeded in controlling questions about race and gender. Many black American women dare to assert radical subjectivity to develop critical consciousness, and to expose the double oppression of the black woman through the writing of African American literature.

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Likewise, black American female writers have tackled the two handicaps of black women for being black and female. They have revealed to the world „racism‟ and „sexism‟ as two plagues oppressing them. Among those brilliant black female writers, we can list Terry Mc Milan, Jessy Redmond Fauset, Zora Neal Huston, Tony Morison, Alice Walker, and Angela Davis.

Alice Walker -as any other Southern black American- endured the difficulty of the twentieth century countryside life, and the exploitation of the greedy white man who worked the father to death and broke the courage of the strong black mother. She felt her responsibility in giving voice to centuries of silent bitterness and hatred of black people, of the black man‟s inner psychological struggle, and the victimized black woman and her double oppression. Alice Walker left the South only to return to capture it in her fiction that is based on her relatives and friends‟ authentic lives.

Alice Walker is one of those black women who used fiction to denounce racism; sexism; and class-discrimination one, of those whose role was to educate the black American woman, and mainly the Southerner one, for critical pedagogy and for acquiring the knowledge she requires.

She used fiction to develop a feminist -or rather-, a womanist consciousness. She is a typical Southern black woman whose father in company with her brothers failed to give her male modal she could respect. Likewise, Alice Walker becomes one supporter of black feminism (womanism), which opposes all oppression based on race, class, sexual preferences, and physical ability. This movement revealed that black women experienced a different and a more intense kind of oppression than did white women (for their double oppression generated out of racism and sexism together).

Alice walker has once admitted that the truest impulse she has is merely to write; and that, accordingly, her major advice to young black people-especially women-is to forget about what colour or sex they are and to stick to write poems and novels….

Her works, then, have become accepted as an integrated part of American literature. The Third Life of Grange Copeland is one of her novels by which she depicted the outlines of the social lives of Negroes, and the relation between the white landlord and the black tenant, and the one between the Negro man and his wife in the twentieth century African American fiction.

Many critics assume that any novel dealing with the relationship among a black community (or between members of a black family) suffers negligence-which is the contrary to books that tackle white people as protagonists. As a result, gender problems in

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black American literature have been given less importance than race problems. However, we have, here, this popular novel in hands: The Third Life of Grange Copeland, which certainly, focuses on black family members‟ relationships -and particularly, black male and female relationships. It does also treat black and white characters‟ relationship in order to cover every angle of the African American characters‟ life.

The Third Life of Grange Copeland is a vivid illustration of the hard life that accompanies black American characters (especially in the South and in the period taking place from the 1920‟s to the 1960‟s) under the new form of slavery drawn from racial discrimination and black skin rejection and segregation. Black American characters are nominally emancipated from the old slavery, yet they are still living under the total domination and tyranny of the whites who deprive them of every simple right in life: they are segregated, excluded, despised and disfranchised.

Black characters in this novel are poorly situated to articulate and to pronounce openly their grievances, and they are much less engaged for direct confrontation with their white oppressors. The novel tackles the life of black sharecroppers, tenant farmers, and farm laborers who are subject to the whims of landlords and who can offer no better fate to their children. It also deals with the lives of black male characters who desert their families -and head North- in search for a better status in the American society. The novel illustrates Black male characters‟ suffering because of the harsh racism by the white bosses (and the white American society in general), and on the other hand, their humiliation and torture of black female characters. Black men endure a harsh situation under the whites‟ oppression; and they are violent and ruthless in treating their submissive and docile women and whose situation is worse for possessing the lowest and the most penalizing qualities-for being black and female.

It is clearly agreed that what causes whites‟ oppression on the blacks is greed, exploitation, and racism reinforced by the white society (the white law) to ensure the white characters‟ welfare on the misery and distress of the blacks. However, what causes violence among black characters has remained unknown, or rather, negligible. What is the real cause of black male violence on black women? – Which motives or incentives contribute in generating such violence? - What relation and connection does this violence have with the whites‟ violence on them?-this is what we intend to probe through scratching the surface of Alice Walker‟s novel The Third Life of Grange Copeland.

Many people attempted to approach the double oppression of the black American woman as depicted in fiction, likewise, Patricia Yaeger in “Dirt and Desire” (2000),

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tackled racial and gender violence that black female characters in The Third Life of Grange Copeland – as well as in other African American fictional works are subject to. In her widely accepted version, Patricia Yaeger treated how badly this double violence (and especially black male‟s violence on her) affected the “body” of the African American woman; and she did not direct attention to the cause that generated it. I suggest that Patricia Yaeger‟s work (Dirt and Desire) can only solve one part of black male characters‟ violence on black female characters puzzle.

In the Third Life of Grange Copeland Walker handled the three lives of the protagonist „Grange‟ which –in turn- involves the lives of the three generations (of Grange himself, of Brownfield (his son), and of Ruth (his granddaughter)). Grange‟s first life reflects the top of frustration that the blacks live because of the oppression imposed on them by the whites. The second life reflects the top of violence that black male characters commit on their women. Finally, the third life reflects the emergence and the beginning of compassion between black male and female characters.

With a somewhat different approach to black male characters‟ violence on black female characters, I come up to a hypothesis- though it can offer only questions, and tentative answers – for the cause of this kind of violence in the black family in Alice Walker‟s novel, The third life of Grange Copeland.

I hypothesise that domestic violence in this novel is generated out of two different; yet, hardly interrelated causes that refer to frustration on one hand, and to sexism and gender on the other hand i.e. feelings of frustration and feelings of masculinity chauvinism bring about such violence and women‟s submission stands as an incentive enhancing it.

I tried to deal with the problematic relying on the Frustration-Aggression hypothesis, as presented by all of Dollard, Doob, Miller and Sears (1939); Boring (1939); Gould (1940); Kuhn, Madsen and Becker (1967); Siann (1985); Seltzer and Debra (1988); Aneshenel (1992); Geen (2001); Jewkes (2002); Aronson et al (2005); Al Aissaoui (2005), and Gimm (2008). I also approached the problematic relying on the theory considering the masculine identity and its relation with home violence as presented by Weis and Borges (1973); Denzin (1984); Johnson (1995); MacKinnon (1989); Lawrence-Webb, Littlefield and Okundaye (2004); Gilligan (1996); and Harris (2000). I hence, achieved the following hypothesis:

Domestic violence in this narrative reflects a vent of black men‟ anger of their oppressing lives. Meanwhile, this violence also comes to refer to a „gender issue‟, which

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reflects the masculinity chauvinism of black male characters on one hand, and the subordination and submission of black female characters on the other hand.

Black male characters see in their violence on their women a relief and a release of their kept anger and despair caused by their oppressing lives. They see in it a response to their frustration (caused by racial discrimination, poverty and other forms of oppression). They also intend –by this violence- to establish a masculine identity and to get control over their women who –by their submission- give them the opportunity to do so.

Although constructing a theory is not my purpose, those motives and incentives do constitute a phenomenological structure that reveals the prevailing facets of wife abuse. In my work, I handled the main aspects causing black men‟s violence on black women in the Third Life of Grange Copeland. I divided my present piece of research into three chapters. In the first chapter (the theoretical chapter), I handled the theme of violence and its causes. Therefore, I started by introducing the different issues of violence, and then, I shifted to discussing „frustration‟ and „sexism‟ as the main motives generating home violence. I also attempted to deal with women‟s subordination and its relation with this violence (I took the authentic black woman as an illustration). In this chapter, I also tried to consider movements which try to deal with such phenomena as racism (as one form of frustration for the blacks) and sexism, so that I mentioned Feminism and Womanism as two important issues searching in the domestic violence. Finally, I dealt with punishment to show its contribution to the development or the withdrawal of violence.

In the second chapter, I focused on demonstrating how oppressed and tyrannized black characters were. So that, I tried to discuss their lives issues concerning the different spheres (the economic, the social and the political). Then, I shifted to tackle each black male character‟s violence on his woman (or women) and which is derived out of his sense of frustration. Finally, I attempted to demonstrate that the Civil Rights Movement (as a fighter against racism and the blacks‟ oppression) appeared to improve –to some extent- the inter-gender relationships between black male and female characters. My intention was to refer to this movement as an alleviation of black men‟s frustration, and then of their aggression on their women.

In the third chapter, I tackled the sexist character of black men‟s violence on their women in this novel. Accordingly, I tried to approach black male characters‟ violence as a gender issue by which they meant, or intended, to demonstrate a masculine identity, and to establish domination and control over the black woman. Finally, I moved to discuss the subordination of the black female character and its influence on generating her submissive

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character, and to show how this submission resulted in increasing their men‟s violence on them.

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CHAPTER ONE

THE EMERGENCE OF HOME VIOLENCE 1-1-INTRODUCTION

1-2-VIOLENCE

1-2-1-The Definition of Violence 1-2-2-The Issues of Violence 1-2-2-1-The Physical Violence

1-2-2-2-The Emotional Violence (The Psychological Violence) A-Emotional Verbal Violence

B-Emotional Non-Verbal Violence

1-2-3-The Hybrid: Physical/Psychological Violence

1-3-THE CAUSES OF VIOLENC

1-3-1-Violence as Response to Frustration 1-3-1-1-The Definition of Frustration 1-3-1-2-Society as a Great Oppressing Force 1-3-1-3-Different Forms of Frustration 1-3-1-4-Racism

1-3-1-5-The Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis 1-3-2-Violence as Gender Issue

1-3-2-1-Sexism

1-3-2-2-Women‟s Subordination

A-The Subordination of the Black American Woman B-The Double Oppression of the Black American Woman 1-3-2-3-The Superiority of Women (Woman‟s Strength)

1-3-2-4-Feminism and Womanism A-Feminism

B-Womanism (Black Feminism) 1-3-2-5-Sexism and Domestic Violence 1-4-VIOLENCE AND PUNISHMENT

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CHAPTER ONE: THE EMERGENCE OF HOME VIOLENCE

1-1-INTRODUCTION

One of the most important topics that people attempted to tackle is “violence” in society and more precisely home “violence”.

Violence enters our lives, so that it shuts out their serenity and helps create a range of ambiguity, struggle and even hatred in terms of individuals‟ relationships.

Domestic violence –though it refers to indoor‟s problems- it becomes a universal phenomenon to be dealt with for the huge effects it does on society, especially because it does have a great influence on the main components of society: men and women.

One does not seem to contradict the different effects of violence and of domestic violence in particular on the world. He however finds it confusing and contradictory to diagnose the real causes generating such a phenomenon.

Hence, many researchers assign their focus and interest to search for the motives that derive this- one may say-societal plague, and to seek treat them in order to find out probable limitations.

There may be also noticeable disagreements when considering the different forms of behaviour as to be labelled as violence or not. Therefore, people may face controversy over regarding, for example, the humiliating behaviours (like insulting and desertion) as violent. Men and women –in reality and in fiction as well- undergo tremendous troubles as far as their inter-gender relationships are concerned, and the blacks are the most affected ones due to their exposure to a different past and present too. Those inter-gender relationships are often characterized by wife abuse that reflects, to some extent, domination over women.

Frustration and oppression seem to have a considerable link with family violence, and any individual may face those phenomena within society. Frustration provokes people‟s rage and anger, which they need vent through different ways. Gender roles –in society and in the family in particular- has also much to do in the occurrence of domestic violence. In order to understand the family, and more precisely, the inter-gender relationships in fiction, one may resort to society (the real world) as a concrete demonstration and vice versa for fiction is no less useful in studying such conceptions and issues as the family, and family violence in reality.

Thus, in this chapter, we are going to probe in violence (and particularly domestic violence) and its causes as they appear in the Third Life of Grange Copeland, hence we

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will back up this work with reference to some sociological, psychological, historical and literary theories and backgrounds.

1-2-VIOLENCE

1-2-1-The definition of violence

Violence as many novelists, psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, and other researchers regard is any aggressive behaviour that involves the intent to hurt or emerge superior to others. However, a violent behaviour does not necessarily involve physical injury. Hence, there are different issues to violence that we will try to tackle in this chapter.

Violence is any form of aggressive behaviour aimed at and targeted towards any living being. It is any act or expression that can be considered as offensive and abusive by the offender, and mainly by the victim.

It therefore involves two different roles: the aggressor‟s motivation to cause harm and injury, and the victim‟s motivation to avoid such harm.

In this case, one can infer that if the victim is not hurt (whether physically or emotionally), the behaviour will not be counted as violence. The same inference would be drawn when considering the offender‟s intention .i.e. his intention of evil, of harm determines his behaviour as real „violence‟.

The concept of consent, therefore, plays a great role in accordance of violence. Thus, it is the participants‟ view towards the behaviour that makes it perceived as violent.

Defence too, especially self-defence, has a serious relation to do with violence. Violence is legitimized when seen more rather defensive than when occurs at the first strike. (Siann, G.1985:12 and Rowan, J.1978). Likewise, understanding violence is linked to a perceived aggressor-victim relationship, and hence defensive use of force is not recognized as violent.

Therefore, contradiction –and even confusion- seems to interfere when discussing the term of violence. Moreover, this is the fact that makes it almost impossible to give it a clear-cut definition. The same difficulty may impose itself when tackling its different types. For instance, it seems misleading whether the emotional abuse should be referred to as violence or not.

1-2-2-The issues of violence

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1-2-2-1-The Physical violence

It is any kind of behaviour that is judged to be physically harmful and which includes all of battering, rape and murder. It is –in a word- all what somebody does to harm another (or even himself) physically.

Rape as the logical convergence of sex and aggression is also regarded to as physical assault.

The World Health Organization (WHO) in “World Report on Violence and Health” (2002) defined it as the intentional use of physical force or power with the potential for causing injury, harm, disability, or death of oneself or another‟s. It ranges from physical contact to rape and murder, which are often considered as direct physical abuses.

Indirect physical violence may therefore include destruction of properties and throwing objects near the victim.

1-2-2-2-The Emotional Violence (also called psychological violence)

The emotional violence has more to do with symbolic abuses. It is to hurt people‟s feelings by humiliating and bullying them, and it is divided into two other subdivisions. A-Emotional Verbal Violence

It is every word or verbal expression that is considered as offensive to the victim like insulting or pronouncing anything harmful to his feelings. Thus, characteristic forms of oral offence or aggressiveness are cursing and humiliating comments. Insults and verbal threats are generally the best examples of this form of violence.

B-Emotional non-verbal violence

It is any action done with the intention to offend somebody psychologically. Desertion, indifference, betrayal…, these are the different forms of the emotional non-verbal violence. It is to hurt another‟s feelings and emotions by humiliating him/her privately or publicly. It includes gestures, facial expressions; controlling the victim‟s money and/or personal relationships, or to stifle the other‟s sense of autonomy.

1-2-3-The Hybrid: Physical/Psychological violence

Violence conveys the perceived intent of causing psychological or physical harm to oneself or another. Thus, the verbal aggression is inevitably seen as violent.

There is a tendency to uphold the verbal aggression (or psychological abuse in general) as a mild alternative for physical aggression. However, “letting one‟s feelings out” increases rather than decreases the probability of subsequent physical aggression. (Stets, J. E.1990:502).

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Verbal aggression, in this case, stands as a factor encouraging and reinforcing the use of physical aggression. In a word, verbal aggression carries seeds of physical violence.

It is even assumed that the emotional abuse is closely related to the development of battering in a relationship (Hamby, S.L and Sugarman, D.B.1999:960).

However, some forms of emotional offence are much more associated with the physical assault than others are. Siann, G (1985) sees that malicious name-calling, (calling a partner stupid, dump, fat, ugly, or lousy lover), threats, and destroying another‟s property seem to precede or follow physical violence more than any other forms of emotional aggression. In this way, violence is a procedure that leads implicitly or explicitly, directly or indirectly to the physical or the moral destruction of the other. It is a destructive force that makes the offender dehumanizes his victim¹.

Consequently, physical assault is not separate from emotional violence. It is agreed that psychological aggression which includes verbal and non-verbal abuses, and which does not hold explicit or direct assault of another„s body, is an important component of battering. Stets. J. E. (1990) sees that verbal and minor physical aggression appear to have the same meaning for women as the most victimized group.

One should not therefore underestimate the effect of psychological (emotional) aggression. This kind of violence may be even more damaging than physical violence in time. (Hamby, S.L and David B. Sugarman, D.B. 1999: 959). They see these violent forms of behaviours as nothing but distinct techniques to obtain control and domination over another person.

Not only physical assault is regarded to as fulfilling an instrumental need and which is to exert control over another, but contemptuous and critical words are also used to establish control and exert power over a partner.

Violence, in general, is any aggressive activity by which the offender –for some reasons- intends harm and hopes for injury, and by which the inner and the moral core of the victim is attacked. It is indeed a negative, hostile, and destructive manner (for articulating with others) which transforms and renders the other into an object.

1-2-4-Domestic Violence

One of the most interesting topics concerning violence and aggression on which many people put emphasis is what is called family, domestic or home violence.

1- The translation is done by the writer of the thesis « La violence est un processus qui conduit implicitement ou explicitement, directement ou

indirectement, à la destruction moral ou physique de l‟autre. C‟est une force destructive qui déshumanise autant son auteur que sa victime ». (Muller, J. M.1988: 23).

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Domestic violence stands as a vivid illustration of the different techniques to establish domination over another. It is a basic source for analysing the various issues and strategies that one (man) can do to get "control” and exert power over a partner (woman).

Even though the term comes to mean all the forms of family violence i.e. child abuse, husband abuse and wife battering, the focus falls mainly on the latter for being the most frequent one besides its reflection of other issues that we will treat later.

Using threats to hurt or leave her, using emotional abuse ( like calling her names, intimidating and humiliating her), acting like a boss and treating her as a servant, beating the children to make her feel guilty, limiting her success…, these appear to be the malicious strategies of wife battering.

Domestic violence is generally referred to as „patriarchal terrorism‟, and it implies a form of abusive control of wives (or women in general) by their male partners and that “involves the systematic use of not only violence but also economic subordination, threats, isolation, and other control tactics.” (Johnson, M.P.1995:284).

This type of violence can be defined as ownership of female partners. Hence, patriarchal terrorism as one form of family violence is distinct from „common couple violence‟²for being highly intervened by the concept of masculinity chauvinism which we will deal with in the next parts of this chapter. However, common couple violence may exist only as a

last resort in self-defence against long standing abuse from men (Johnson, M.p.1995:287). To insult, swear, shout at, sulk or refuse to talk, stomp and insult her in front of others,

throw, smash or destroy her property, accuse her of being a lousy lover, threaten to hit her, call her stupid, dump, ugly,…etc are the most agreed strategies for men to gain control and domination and to afflict violence on women. The following wheel may illustrate the case best:

2-Common couple violence is occasional outbursts of violence from either husbands or wives or both, and it is distinct from patriarchal terrorism, which refers to male violence on women.

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1-3-THE CAUSES OF VIOLENCE

We have seen the different forms of violence (the physical and the emotional violence); however, we have not approached yet what causes these issues to happen. The question that seems inevitable, crucial and necessary here is whether violence is derived out of an instinctive need, or there are other motives that lead to its occurrence.

Some psychologists see violence as innate. Lorenz, Ardrey, and Gorer appeared to be explaining violence as an instinctive darkness within the human heart, as an inborn need to aggress. They have therefore backed up their notion with the case of superior weapons‟ development as a genetic necessity. (Siann, G.1985: pp 56-73).

However, many other studies have shown that a violent behaviour is not generated out of an innate drive, and it is thus related to certain external drives and causes. To cover every angle of the motives of violence, we will have to deal with what provokes people to behave violently and what maintains their violent actions.

1-3-1-Violence as a Response to Frustration

Any aggressive behaviour is stemmed out of some motivating and provocative states such as frustration that is the first cause, which seems to generate violence among people (and mainly home violence). This is what the Frustration-Aggression hypothesis (see page27) puts forward when asserting that threatening or unsatisfying situations to pleasure (mostly done by the dominant group) tend to reinforce violence over weaker creatures. Being frustrated and being denied self-affirmation, a person may resort to aggression. Under this perspective, violence can be described as satisfying alternative or rather revengeful act.

1-3-1-1-The Definition of Frustration

Oppression, tyranny, deprivation, all of these terms can illustrate the concept of “frustration” best. The word comes to mean any kind of prevention from doing, having or even expressing something.

It is every kind of deprivation like poverty, a serious illness, ostracizing, disfranchisement, castration (for males), or any form of devaluation or humiliation… Frustration however is a subjective experience i.e. people differ in the ease with which they feel frustrations and in the types of circumstances –or situations-, which they perceive as frustrating or oppressing. “Here it becomes clear how different are the frustrations of different cultures, how a nation may direct and displace the aggressions of its people” (Boring, E.G.1939:480).

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Boring E.G (1939) and Grimm, J (2008) also defined frustration as those conditions that exist when a goal-response suffer interference. In this sense, frustration occurs when a predicted goal-response is interrupted and interdicted. Therefore, the necessity to interfere with the existing goal-response makes of frustration a constant feature in-group life.

Others (like Kuhn, D, Z; Madsen, C.H; Becher, W.C (1967)) define frustration as those operations involving non-reward (extinction), withdrawing positive reinforces, or presenting negative reinforces. Likewise, frustration stands as a barrier against securing one‟s economic or social satisfaction.

Reaching such an understanding of the concept of “frustration”, one cannot put a separate line between frustration and the oppressing lives that all black people in general and black Americans in particular lived.

1-3-1-2-Society as a Great Frustrating Force (the case of African American People)

Life in society is frustrating. In this sense, it is necessary to think of America as one of the greatest frustrating societies for the African Americans. Black people were the most frustrated group in America in the era taking place from the Emancipation and until the Civil Rights Movement‟s occurrence (1960‟s).

Besides poverty and deprivation of different rights, they experienced harsh emotional rejection by the white society, which resulted in a terrible psychological vulnerability. They really suffered a terrible grief because of their robbed rights and dignity. They were subject to Jim Crow‟s tripartite system of domination and oppression, i.e. they were socially and politically controlled, and they were economically exploited. It is necessary here to demonstrate that how “race prejudice, even though unreasonable, may stabilize a frustrated group” (Boring, E.G.1939:480)

Morris A.D (1999) asserts that as coloured people, black Americans were ostracized -and worse- they were discriminated -and even segregated by the whites. All these resulted in serious psychological damage.

1-3-1-3-Different Forms of Frustration (black Americans‟ oppression)

Black Americans (in the period between the Emancipation and the rise of the Civil Rights Movement) were subject to very bad economic conditions. They –as the generation of the Emancipation -were nominally free but economically enslaved. Allen, W.R (1995), Morris, A.D (1999) and Cobble, D.S (2004)argue that most of them remained sharecroppers, tenant farmers, or wage labourers getting irregular incomes, and therefore, subject either to semi-starvation or to economic dependency on the whites.

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Most of them suffered from very poor housing conditions. Black people (especially those living in the rural South) were using dwelling units devoid of electricity and water supply and with poor foundations. In a word, the houses they occupied were either unfit for human use or required considerable repairs that they were unable of.

The majority of black Americans remained illiterate, and for the few ones who got educated, they were receiving some restricted knowledge by which they were trained to be made better servants or farm hands. The very few ones however, who joined high schools, were provided with a poor and provocative curriculum. This discrimination in education was perceived as contemptuous and humiliating from the part of the blacks, and hence, increased their sensitivity and feelings of inferiority. (Woodson, C.G.1990:17 and Haskins, J.2001:77).

Black people in America had no voice in courts, as Rose, A. (1962) and Burns, H. (1973) asserted, and their victims had no rights to claim for or defend especially if the offender was white. I think that this was the fact that increased the whites‟ oppression on the blacks. Although the offender was another black, sentences were surprisingly reduced – even for major crimes). This was clearly not decided in favour of black people however, it reflects neglect and disdain for them. In addition, at the same time it created a threat among the black community because crimes were to increase.

Black lawyers (the few ones that the blacks had), plaintiffs, defendants, and witnesses were subject to overly racist attitudes; black and white offenders did not get the same punishment for the same offence.

Segregation, this was what characterised religion in America. Woodson, C.G (1990) asserted that there was no practical contact between blacks and whites for religious purposes. It might be explicit here that the whites did not want them to know about the real religion of Christianity³ mainly because of –like Woodson, C.G (1990) asserted- the forbidden attendance of the blacks in white churches. Shakur, A. (2006) clearly stated that the blacks‟ culture was suppressed and their religious concepts were distorted.

Most of the black people rejected the black church even though they attended it in a very regular manner as a matter of preserving tradition, or of gratifying their elders, and sometimes because they were urged to. They therefore felt restricted and frustrated as far as religion was concerned.

3-Black preachers justified racial discrimination and exploitation of the blacks according to some theological beliefs brought by the whites and which were inherited from their slave ancestors. For further information, see: Woodson. C.G.1990.the Mis-Education of the blacks.

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They were also strictly disfranchised. They were considered to have no political rights because they were not regarded to as real American citizens because of their black skin4. Consequently, they were deprived of their rights to vote and to voice their choices, and they were prevented to have any hand concerning the political affairs of the state. Burns, H. (1973: 159) declared that white people suppressed any possible black political power. The oppression of black people seemed to be based on racial discrimination in all life‟s domains. It is an unfair treatment of generally two categories of people generating out of the conceptions of „race‟ and „racism‟.

1-3-1-4- Racism

Racism usually denotes race-based prejudice, discrimination, exclusion, distinction and oppression. The term “racism” refers to the “belief” or “ideology” that race is a significant criterion to determine human characteristics and capacities, which –in turn- determine either the superiority or inferiority of each racial group.

It seems however, that race refers to “skin colour”, even though it considers other variables like descent, national or ethnic origin. Difference in race also involves the idea that one racial group is superior to the other.

Winant, H (2000:pp172-173) says in this way that differentiation concerning race stays therefore imprecise if not completely arbitrary. In this sense, numerous groups are qualified as races according to national origin and religion, and the most familiar criteria are those of colour for being frequently perceived and conceived of as signs of racial „otherness‟.

Many anthropologists and sociologists (like Feagin, J.R) in his book: Systematic Racism: A theory of Oppression (2006) asserts that racial discrimination started in America in the 17th century and it still exists in our present time. He maintains that U.S institutions today reflect the same racialized hierarchy created in that time. Thus African American people still experience and suffer from racial discrimination and which affect every sphere of their lives: the economic, social, political…

Modern racism, however, is associated with “colour-blind racism” as depicted by Silva E.B (2003) in his Racism without Racists. It appeared after the abolition of real segregation issue since the 1960s, and it conveys the attempt to maintain white privilege and superiority without being racist.

Trepagnier, B (2006), in her “How Well-Meaning White People Perpetuate the Racial

4-Being descendents of Africa , black Americans were not welcomed and acknowledged as real American citizens.